SXSW Tech Talk: How Ra Ra Riot Stays Connected

With SXSW having wrapped up, hundreds of bands gathered here in Austin get ready to head back on the road, dispersing across the country on tour. One of those bands is Ra Ra Riot, who headlined SXSW's Barsuk/Merge showcase Saturday night at the Parish. They've been in Austin for three days, seeing old friends and meeting tons of new people. Next, they're driving up to Bloomington, IN, and once you get outside of a major city like Austin, it becomes a lot harder to stay in touch with people.

"I don't have an iPhone or anything because 90% of the time, when you're on the road, you can barely get enough service to send a text, let alone surf the web on a phone," says guitarist Milo Bonacci. Instead, his lifeline is his laptop, even when it's not connected to the internet. "I'd go insane without my computer." During 10-hour van rides, he can sit in the back and work on new songs or watch DVDs to pass the time. And then when they get somewhere with WiFi, he can get online, of course.

"It's not that bad being without the internet while we're on the road," says Bonacci. "It's good to be disconnected every now and then."